


In a Strange Land

by SleepsWithCoyotes



Category: Saiyuki (Anime & Manga), Star Ocean: The Second Story | Second Evolution
Genre: Archival Fic, Challenge fic, Crossover, Don't copy to another site, Dragons, M/M, mysterious portals
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-13
Updated: 2020-07-13
Packaged: 2021-03-05 04:42:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,527
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25238674
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SleepsWithCoyotes/pseuds/SleepsWithCoyotes
Summary: Ashton has a very bad day.
Relationships: Ashton Anchors/Dias Flac
Comments: 2
Kudos: 15





	In a Strange Land

**Author's Note:**

> Back to working on moving stuff over from the spambot...this one's from 2005, from a request challenge on my journal: dogmatix gave me "Hakkai and Ashton" and the word "dragons."

"Are you sure you should touch that?" Bowman asks, his voice echoing off the cavern's dusty machinery.

"I'm sure it's fine," Claude says, lifting a hand to wave Bowman off--and then he lowers it, very carefully, and sticks it firmly into his pocket. "Although, come to think of it, I've said that before."

The strange machines are silent, no lights flashing from the instrument banks--if those _are_ instrument banks--no whine or hum of motors to give their workings away. The hidden lab--if it _is_ a lab, and Leon says it is, so that's good enough for Ashton--might as well be nothing but an abandoned cavern.

Dias makes an odd sound, half amusement and half scorn, eyeing Claude blandly. "You mean what brought you here the first time?"

It must be a 'rival' thing. Claude laughs, but his heart isn't in it. Ashton isn't sure he could laugh either with Dias staring at him like that, face next to expressionless, icy challenge in his eyes. Not that Dias ever looks at him like that, and Ashton is careful to keep it that way, curbing his tendency to rush into things and trying not to do anything stupid enough that Dias will have to notice it. It's hard to remain unnoticed, though, when you're the unluckiest man in the universe.

Having a pair of dragons heads growing out of your back doesn't help with the whole 'unnoticed' thing, either.

"Yeah, the portal. But I didn't _do_ anything that time; I just got too close, and...uh...is that thing supposed to be glowing?"

Dawning horror shouldn't look so natural on Claude's face. Fearless leaders are supposed to be just that--fearless--but Claude has always worn his heart on his sleeve. Now, Bowman's look of wary interest--that's much more in character, as is Dias'--

No, on second thought, Dias looks downright disturbed. You can tell by the way his eyes widen until he's not even glaring, how the hard line of his mouth softens and his lips almost part. He looks startlingly young like that and just a little bit lost, and Ashton wants to tell him it's okay, that Ashton will never breathe a word of it to anyone, even if they torture him. Dias' secret is safe with him.

Only he doesn't say that because one, Dias would kill him, and two, Dias isn't staring at him. Dias is staring at something just past Ashton's shoulder, and he's pretty sure it isn't either of the dragons.

Three heads whip around as one, two on long, serpentine necks, red and blue, and lastly Ashton, whose hair falls into his eyes despite the headband, blinding him for a few, precious seconds that he's never going to get back now. It's far too late to get a good look at whatever's happening behind him, because there's a brilliant flash that would have blinded him anyway, and Claude's yelling something that sounds suspiciously like: "Ashton! _Run_!"

Light hits the back of his eyes so hard it whines in his ears, or maybe that's just what it sounds like when the world disintegrates around you. For the space of three heartbeats, he can't feel a thing, not the metal floor beneath his feet or the now-familiar weight of the dragons pressing down on his spine. He can still think, though, and he thinks that it's a shame. You save the universe, find a few good friends, fall in and out of each other's lives for a year or two, and then you get blasted to your component atoms. He knows about things like atoms now thanks to Opera and Claude, but he can't say it's much consolation.

_I hope Dias is all right_ , he thinks at the very end, because Dias had been standing awfully close. It's funny how Dias is always right there despite all Ashton's attempts at giving him the space he so obviously craves. Maybe Dias has taken it upon himself to act as a buffer between Ashton's atrocious luck and the rest of the world. It's the sort of thing Dias would do. Quiet-like. So that no one could gush at him for his heroics.

Only maybe it's not quite the _very_ end, because the whining in his ears changes pitch, becomes shriller and then unbearable and finally silent, either far above what human ears can sense or vanished altogether. In front of his eyes, it's whirling snow, snow that comes in flecks of color: dusty tan, faded blue, and a vibrant, shifting green that almost fills his vision. He has time to blink, realize that he's weaving in place but standing on his own two feet, and then he's not standing anymore. Slumping right over, he ends up face-down in the road, and that there is in fact a road is the only thing that penetrates for a long, long time.

"Awrk, urk!" the forest hears--he's in a _forest_ \--and a few birds--there are _birds_ \--take raucous exception to a particularly worried "Awroo!" but Ashton is beyond caring at the moment. One of his hands is curled just a few inches from his face, and there's a sort of bug-thing crawling over the leather of his glove. It looks like a caterpillar, only it's strangely furry. When it reaches his knuckles and bare skin beyond, he can feel its soft bristles, like a very fine brush, and its tiny, almost sticky feet as it hitches itself onward. It doesn't try to eat him or anything. Admittedly, it's only an inch long, but you never know with monsters.

"Awr?" Ururun says, twining his neck around Gyoro's to peer at him with cool blue eyes. They are, he notices with a jolt, the exact color of Dias'. Puffs of frost-smoke are blooming from the corners of Ururun's mouth, the horns that curve to frame the dragon's mouth dripping with condensation. Ururun is really worried...and now he can hear Gyoro growling, continuous and very low.

Ashton blinks, shakes the strange, alien caterpillar from his finger--it doesn't bite him, or change shape, or spit poison, and this actually worries him--and levers himself shakily upright.

"I'm all right," he says, "it's okay." He's pretty sure he'll mean it in another hour or so.

Sitting back on his heels, he takes a good look around and decides he doesn't recognize this place at all. The grass is the right color and so is the sky through the trees, but the leaves between him and all that comforting blue are oddly-shaped, not quite what his eyes expect to see. Wherever he is, it isn't home. It isn't Expel. And he's here all alone.

"Awrk!" Gyoro protests, speechless with offense, and Ashton hunches his shoulders guiltily even as he lifts both hands to cover his head against a surely justified thumping.

"Sorry, Gyoro," he offers sheepishly, glancing up to see the red dragon looking pointedly away. Gyoro sniffs, sparks crackling from his muzzle and hissing to ash, carried up on the breeze and wafted away.

_Hmph_ , a gruff, grating voice growls in his mind. _'All alone,' indeed_.

_Now, Gyoro_ , Ururun chides, his lighter voice calm, soothing. _He's worried about his friends_.

_I'm sure they're perfectly fine, Ashton_ , the blue dragon adds, curling his neck around Ashton's shoulder to look him in the eye. _Whatever it was, it wasn't strong enough to take Dias, and he was practically on top of you_.

Sparks fly as Gyoro snorts a draconic snicker, and Ururun's neck straightens like the snap of a bowstring, his strong, sinewy neck just missing Ashton's face as he lunges up to peck Gyoro right between the eyes. From there it's a brawl, and all Ashton can do is wrap his arms more tightly over his head and groan. As far as he can tell, the dragons are the next best thing to invulnerable, their scales better than any armor, but it's his back their necks emerge from, and it's his muscles that are going to ache in the morning after the way they're throwing themselves around. Besides, what they feel he feels, and getting pecked by Ururun hurts.

"Erm...excuse me? Are you all right down there?"

The sound of a human voice startles the entire trio into stillness, and three pairs of eyes swivel slowly to the right, scanning the slope of a wooded hill until they spot the speaker. There's a man standing a cautious distance from the road, just out of range for both Gyoro's flame and Ururun's icy breath, almost as if he'd calculated the distance. He's dressed mostly in green, blending seamlessly with the trees, but the pale sash slung from shoulder to hip makes him a little easier to spot. He has a nice face, though it's a bit apprehensive right now, and the monocle makes him look very serious, very scholarly. The chances of him being a demon or a mass murderer seem quite low, which to Ashton translates as 'probably harmless.'

"Ah, sorry about that," Ashton says, lowering his arms and fixing what he hopes is a reassuring smile on his face. "They do this all the time. Sibling rivalry."

The man in green blinks, but he takes a cautious step closer, examining Ashton with admirable aplomb. "I...see. May I ask...are you a youkai?"

"What's that?" Ashton asks without thinking, then hunches his shoulders when he hears Gyoro groan. Right, because it's always a bad idea to let the natives know you're _not from around here_. Just ask Claude. "Er, I mean, I'm...not from around here. And...um. You wouldn't believe me anyway," he trails off, unhappily aware that his voice sounds just the tiniest bit miserable.

For some reason, it makes the stranger relax just that much more, and the man comes down to join them on the road with a faint smile. It almost looks like one of Dias', but Dias has only smiled maybe five times since Ashton first met him, so he doesn't have much to compare them by.

"You'd be surprised what I can believe," the stranger says lightly.

Ashton doesn't intend to, but as he scrambles politely to his feet, he finds his mouth scrambling just as fast, everything coming out in a rush.

"Well, there was this cave, and we were exploring it because Claude got some weird readings off it, something about anti-tachy-something-particle-thing. I'm not a scientist, you know? I'm just a Crest Knight. But it might have been another Sorcery Globe, so we went in, and there was all this equipment lying around, and Bowman told Claude not to touch anything, and then there was a really bright light, and Dias was right there, and then I was _here_ , and your trees are all strange, and a bug crawled on me. It was a very nice bug, and I don't think it was at all possessed, but it was furry, and they're not supposed to be furry. And I just want to go home, but I think I'm stuck on your world, and I'm having a very bad day."

That's an understatement, of course, because...well, it's one thing to have your planet blow up while you're surrounded by your closest friends. It's another thing to be whisked away from both planet and friends and know you'll have to go it alone.

"Arwk!"

Almost alone.

All the same, he'd give just about anything to hear Celine shriek about the local bugs and summon the god of fire to squish it for her.

Though he half expects the stranger to laugh or call him a liar, the man just nods, though his brows have arched to their utmost by the time Ashton's done. Ashton knows there isn't anything the man can say to make things better, but then he finds out he's wrong.

"I'm Cho Hakkai," the man says and gives an oddly formal bow, clearly a greeting. He isn't challenging Ashton's garbled explanation or mocking him as a madman or attacking him as a monster, and Ashton is so desperately relieved by this, it's all he can do to keep from hugging the man.

"Ashton Anchors," he says in return, "and Gyoro and Ururun. Erm. About the dragons. There was this accident while we were fighting, see, and...well, it's a long story."

Cho Hakkai smiles. "I imagine it would have to be."

_Cho Hakkai_ , Ashton thinks. Is that a first and last name? Is 'Cho' a title? He's just happy Claude made sure they all have translators and that they all wear them, even Dias. God, he misses Dias. It's hard to be nervous in a new place with over six feet of stone-faced swordsman lurking at your back.

They're standing close enough that Ashton can reach out and shake Cho Hakkai's hand if he wants to, and he really does want to, except that he's afraid he won't be able to stop. They're standing so close, in fact, that when both dragons suddenly perk up at a shift in the wind and stretch their necks out over Ashton's shoulders, Cho Hakkai doesn't have time to step back before they have their noses buried in his clothes, snuffling enthusiastically.

"Gyoro!" Ashton gasps, eyes wide and horrified. "Ururun! What are you--stop that! We've only just met!" Oh, and he is _blushing_ , because he isn't close enough--isn't dragon enough--to be able to tell what Cho Hakkai smells like with his own nose, but right now he thinks he could probably pick the taste of the man's skin out of a hundred others.

_Dragons_ , Gyoro growls, intrigued. _He smells like dragons_.

"Dragons?" Ashton echoes in a squeak, meeting eyes as green as his own that stare back at him with more amusement than embarrassment.

And then, as if called, something comes winging out of the trees, a gleaming white shape that could never be mistaken for a bird, not with those wings, or that tail, or that long, long neck.

Ashton's heart stops in that moment, and with his face gone cold and his eyes strained helplessly wide, he's only marginally aware when his pulse kicks in again double-time, sharp and painful in his chest.

"Oh, god, no," he breathes, stumbling backwards, and he's aware that there's a stillness spreading in the wake of his words, that dragon necks have gone stiff and green eyes have turned horribly, painfully sympathetic. That doesn't matter right now. It isn't a conscious choice that makes him want to get _away_ from the tiny dragon that lands neatly on Cho Hakkai's shoulder; it's instinct and the awareness of just how bad his luck is. One fight in one cave with one two-headed dragon, and he walked out less than human. Or more than human, which isn't really any better. He can deal with that, though, because it was only the once and lightning can't possibly strike twice--but this is a brand new world, and maybe here it can.

Tripping in the dirt and landing hard on his backside jolts him out of his panic, but he still feels like he's been scraped raw inside. Part of that is him, too many surprises piled one atop the other, but part of that is _them_. The dragons, neither of whom is looking at him at the moment. They're looking at anything _but_ him, with their heads turned away, their necks bowed rigid and hurt, dejected.

Cho Hakkai just looks at him and finally asks, "Are you all right?"

Ashton digs his fingers into the light powder of dust that coats the road, feeling a thin patch of weeds crumple in his hand. "It's not that I don't want them," Ashton says quietly, holding Cho Hakkai's eyes because he can't meet _theirs_. "But I can't do that again. I just can't. I'm enough of a freak already."

He doesn't flinch away when Ururun curls his neck in and hesitantly pushes his head under Ashton's jaw. He doesn't even mind when Gyoro butts the flat, hard wedge of his skull into the side of Ashton's and leaves it there. He reaches for them and pulls them closer instead, and it's okay, really, everything's fine. Maybe he won't even be a freak here, though he doubts it, because he still doesn't know what a 'youkai' is.

Cho Hakkai leans over and offers him a hand, though, the little white dragon spreading its wings for balance--and then the man goes very still, because there's suddenly a sword blade poked over Ashton's head, the really sharp glittery kind that's threatening to do horrible things to Cho Hakkai if he so much as breathes.

"Back off," a familiar clipped voice says, and Ashton tilts his head back--way back--and blinks up at Dias in astonishment. Claude he might have expected to follow him, out of guilt if nothing else...but Dias?

"What are you doing here?" he asks as Cho Hakkai straightens, the man's hand falling to his side. For some reason, Cho Hakkai is smiling at him again.

Dias' eyes don't want to leave their quarry, but they waver and shift as Ashton watches, falling at last to his. "Leon's trying to reverse the process," Dias says, which isn't an answer, or maybe he asked the wrong question.

"Oh." There really isn't much to say to that--of course someone had to come through and make sure Ashton hasn't wandered off or gotten distracted by a barrel or something--and Dias, well...Dias looks after people. In his own tight-lipped, broodingly homicidal way.

Ururun pulls free of Ashton's arm with a gentle tug, and before he knows what the dragon intends, Ururun tilts his own neck back to bump his head into Dias' free hand like a friendly cat. Ashton wants very badly for the earth to open up beneath him at that moment, and who knows? It's a brand new world. Maybe he'll get lucky after all.

Dias' fingers don't so much twitch as unfold, moving quite deliberately to mold themselves to the curve of Ururun's skull. His touch is firm but careful, and Ashton doesn't get the slightest sense that Dias is preparing to push Ururun away; it's not that kind of touch. He can feel it, after all, and Dias knows he can feel it, because Ashton has many times said so. It's almost like a hand on his own nape, or maybe fingers threaded through his hair, and so many things suddenly make so much sense.

Why Dias is always _there_ , for instance, even though he really doesn't like Claude very much. Why the dragons are always on their best behavior when Dias is around, and why Rena keeps giving him puzzled looks.

"Oh," Ashton says again, and it sounds much happier this time around. "Um...could you not kill Cho Hakkai, please? He's only trying to help."

"Hmph," Dias says, but he sheathes his sword anyway. He has to let go of Ururun to do it, but his fingers draw away slowly, a gliding caress that makes Ashton shiver all over. In a good way, even.

Ururun dips his head back down, brushes his cheek against Ashton's, and gives a smug little hiss Gyoro pointedly ignores.

Cho Hakkai clears his throat, reminding Ashton suddenly of his manners.

"Oh! I'm sorry--Cho Hakkai, this is Dias Flac."

"The one you were worried about?" Cho Hakkai asks. Even though Ashton doesn't remember saying that--not in so many words--it's true enough to make him nod before he can think better of it.

Embarrassment catches up almost immediately, but when he sneaks a glance at Dias, the warning scowl he expects to see is conspicuously absent. Dias even looks pleased, or at least, he has that mellow, sated look he gets after taking permanent care of roving packs of bandits, and Ashton is willing to take that as a good sign.

This time when someone offers him a hand, he clasps it without hesitation. Dias' grip is warm and callused and very strong, pulling Ashton up as if the added weight of the dragons is nothing.

"We should get going," Dias says, scanning the trees with a watchful eye. Ashton doesn't know if Dias has somewhere in particular in mind, but he can tell Dias doesn't want to stay here.

"If you'd care to wait," Cho Hakkai says, "my friends should be along any moment. We were looking for the road so that Hakuryuu would have room to transform--"

Cocking his head curiously, the little dragon on Cho Hakkai's shoulder peers up at the two larger dragons and interrupts with a series of animated cheeps. Ashton's translator gives up after the first "Kyuu," repeating the sound half a dozen times at various pitches before going silent. What Ashton hears is quite different.

_That looks comfortable_ , the white dragon says, red eyes wistful. _It must be nice, doing all the riding_.

"Oh, dear," Ashton murmurs guiltily as the little dragon turns a considering stare on Cho Hakkai.

He can't quite picture the two of them merged, but he thinks someone had better start talking, fast. Just in case.


End file.
